There are more non Irish nationals working in Ireland now then in 2006 however the unemployment rate within the migrant population is higher compering to the indigenous Irish – Census data show.

The number of non-Irish nationals at work increased by 23,670 or 9.7 per cent between 2006 and 2011. This contrasts sharply with a decline of 136,642 or 8.4 per cent in the number of Irish nationals over the same period. In April 2011, the hotels and restaurants sector had the highest proportion of non-Irish national workers (38.1%), followed by business activities (19.6%), manufacturing (18.4%) and the wholesale and retail sector (17.8%).

Unemployment amongst non-Irish nationals increased over the period, more than doubling between 2006 and 2011 from 33,587 to 77,460, giving an unemployment rate of 22.4 per cent compared with 18.5 per cent for Irish nationals in April 2011.

The Central Statistics Office today released the latest publication in its series of Census 2011 results. “This is Ireland – Highlights from Census 2011, Part 2”, which is the second of two summary publications presenting the results of the 2011 census, examines social and economic topics such as employment, occupations, education and skills and health related issues. It includes the main points about employment and unemployment in the migrant community.